After a lovely few days in Washington, DC, it was time for my father and me to fly back to California. I chose Delta Air Lines because it offered a 757-200 with lie-flat beds in “Delta One” business class on its nonstop flight from Washington National to Los Angeles. Little did we know that our aging Delta 757-200 would break, resulting in an 18-hour mechanical delay.
An Extended Mechanical Delay On Delta
I want to start by saying that the delay was very unfortunate, particularly considering both my father and I had commitments the following morning. Yet sometimes life throws you a curveball and you just have to adapt.
We boarded on time, the crew helped everyone to get settled, and then we pushed back on time. But rather than continuing down the apron to takeoff, we returned to the gate after about five minutes.
What was going on?
The captain explained that the engine starter on the left engine was not firing up, so the ground crew would have to do it manually. She assured us we would be on our way in a few minutes.
But even that did not work: the left engine would not start…I’d call that a serious problem, wouldn’t you?
We sat for another half hour onboard before the captain came out and explained over the PA that a part would be flown in from Boston and our revised departure time was 8:30 pm, which was quickly moved back to 10:00 pm.
I looked at Michael, the amazing first class flight attendant who was working the cabin, and said, “We’re not going tonight are we? You’re going illegal, right?” With a wink, he smiled. I knew what was going on….by illegal I meant that the crew would time out. The crew does not originate in DCA but flies a same-day turn from Los Angeles. This is one of the most plum routes in the Delta system since it allows for over 10 hours of flying while still allowing the flight crew to get home in time to sleep in their own bed.
Anyway, I pulled out my phone to check on the availability of United’s 10:05 pm flight from Dulles…only middle seats left and a $500 one-way fare, but I was about to book it to ensure we could get home.
Then I figured why would I come all this way with my dad, only to rush home in middle seats across the aisle from each other? My dad is the most humble man I know, but I did not want to subject him to a middle seat in economy class on a transcontinental flight, especially after a long day.
So we decided to stick it out. I knew the flight would cancel…but until it did I held out a smidgen of hope that we might be able to get home that night.
Delta emailed each passenger a virtual credit card ($25 each) and we headed over to Five Guys for an unexpected dinner. My dad has a weakness for hamburgers and milkshakes (I guess I know where I get that from…) and we enjoyed a nice snack at Five Guys (I skipped the milkshake and French Fries even though dinner was on Delta’s dime…).
I ended up using just one credit and paying a bit out-of-pocket and used the other credit to buy some supplies at Hudson like shaving cream, Airborne supplements, and a pocket bleach pen.
We returned to the gate at 9:00 pm where an announcement was made that the flight was now delayed 18-hours until 8:30 am the next morning.
My heart sank. I knew this would happen and I knew I would now miss a very important meeting the following morning. I could have been home that night…yet we rolled with the delay. It was now too late to make the United flight.
Delta emailed a hotel voucher…for the Westin in Reston (almost all the way to Dulles Airport) or a Comfort Inn in Maryland. No chance. I booked us at the Hyatt Crystal City and we immediately walked out and only had to wait a few minutes for a shuttle. The Hyatt was just over $200 with taxes, but can you imagine taking an Uber out to the Virginia or Maryland suburbs, going to sleep, then getting back early the next morning?
No thank you.
Fast-forward to the following morning. We arrived at the airport at the appointed time, only to find out that the flight was delayed 45 minutes further. Would we even go today?
The part must not have come in the previous night, because I watched as the mechanic worked on the engine.
But to great cheers from the gate area, we finally did board and left for Los Angeles….at 10:45 am.
Was it worthwhile? Well, the flight itself was very lovely, with a comfortable seat, nice bedding, great service, and decent food (though I was really looking forward to the short ribs for dinner). I’ll offer a trip report next week.
CONCLUSION
At the DC meet-up prior to the flight, I had joked that Delta’s 757s are so old we would probably face a mechanical delay. Sadly, my prediction was prescient. This is still a rare thing on Delta…it is sort of hilarious that it happened on my first Delta flight in more than a year.
But while these old workhorses are getting past their prime, I have to give Delta credit for handling the delay quite professionally and efficiently. The vouchers via email really helped and while no delay is fun, it did give me a chance to spend additional quality time with my father.
When life throws you lemons, you must make lemonade.
They need to put these out to pasture. Flying them to Quito 3 times in the last year and every time they are delayed by hours, or cancelled.
Just looking at FR24 for the last month looks like a set of Christmas lights, primarily yellows and reds with a few green interspersed.
It’s a tradeoff, though, right? Because the A321neos are nice…but there is no lie-flat seat in Delta One.
757-200s are way cooler, and they won’t be around much longer. So there’s that
Would the new A321neos with lie flats replace these? Those couldn’t come soon enough
Is that the case? I am not aware of that.
Yes, DL’s upcoming A321neo will have mint-style D1 but I wasn’t sure what its routes/missions would be. Maybe they’ll eventually put the 752s out to pasture with these new Airbus’s.
Did travel insurance cover the hotel?
I don’t carry travel insurance for domestic trips.
What about travel insurance from a credit card that you used to book the ticket?
credit cards with trip delay would cover that.
Chase reserve, ritz, altitude reserve, boA premium, amex platinum, and others
check what credit card did you book the ticket with. Award tickets are also covered
Venture X for me.
Venture X covers delays over 12 hours or overnight.
When you declined the hotels Delta offered and booked your own, did you get reimbursed by Delta later?
Delta did send out an email offering to reimburse for incidentals. I will report back if Delta pays us back for this.
the same thing happened to me in Newark and Delta’s hotel choices were ridiculously far away. The gate agent said it’s outsourced to a third party agency. I stayed at the airport Marriott and to Delta’s credit, they emailed me and stated they would reimburse me for expenses related to the cancellation and they reimbursed me for the Marriott.
Delta reimbursed me for Hyatt Place in LAX, the other choices were terrible.
Wouldn’t one of your travel cards insurance cover something like this?
Is this just a weekend flight DCA-LAX? I thought there are restrictions on transcon flights out of DCA (like LGA)?
It’s daily. There are many exceptions to the DCA 1,250-mile perimeter rule (thank John McCain). LGA is the airport that has the Saturday exception to its perimeter rule.
Thanks for the explanation!
While delays are always frustrating, sometimes it’s just the way it is especially when wx or mx is the culprit. Yet it’s how an airline responds to the delay which is what earns my loyalty and respect for the company. I feel like Delta is very good with this. A recent example…
Last March, I was flying on a DL flight SLC-DCA. After taxiing out, the aircraft turned around and went back to the gate. The Capt informed us that a “crew member” felt ill and decided it was not safe for them to fly. Turned out the crew member was the copilot so good call there. We all saw him deplane and he didn’t look good so everyone was understanding and felt for him.
We only waited about 20 minutes as the company searched for a replacement copilot. In that time, FAs came around with water and snacks in both F and coach and were very friendly and apologetic. Once they found the replacement and after some paperwork, we were on our way, just under an hour delayed; really not a bad delay honestly. And for what it’s worth, probably not a direction of a route that anyone would miss connections either.
An hour into the flight, I received an email from Delta apologizing for the whole thing and noticed that it wasn’t just a canned customer service email, but that it actually specified our exact flight and situation, signed by an SLC mgr. They also gave me 5,000 miles. Keep in mind, I didn’t complain, e-mail, tweet or anything. I didn’t even have status with DL. (I promise I’m not a Tim Dunn ghostwriter here). Sorry Tim, I kid. 😉
I just use this story because I had a FAR worse experience on AA a month later and I’ll let you use your imagination on the outcome of that one! LOL
Related, but not related. While your personal finances are none of my business, but you do fly FC a lot possibly using miles and you really never touch on how you accumulate them. Or maybe that’s something I just assumed and you pay for many of these flights.
But I did wonder if you are doing a story, or have any comments on Adam Bauer’s recent stories on the churn scam that was/is going on with a few travel bloggers. I assume you have at least heard of it and I would love your opinion. It’s interesting to say the least.
“A points and miles manufacturing scheme was headed by a man who is a known fraudster who used the funds to invest, either knowingly or not, into a Ponzi scheme.”
“ How do points and miles bloggers rack up seemingly unlimited points? Well, many aren’t transparent about their behind the scenes activities.
Many manufacture spend. Some do it to a degree that their greed for more points clouds their judgement. Several prominent points and miles bloggers have been embroiled in what can be best described as shady, but may turn out to be an outright pyramid scheme.
A person/company they use to manufacture spend used Traders Domain to earn a margin while the bloggers’ dollars were waiting to be returned. It’s complicated and I’m still working out the story in its entirety. But it’s falling apart. It’s a hub and spoke scam. Some of the spokes are breaking. ”
Thanks!
I have no idea what you are referring to. Feel free to paste links in. I don’t do MS or anything like that.
Check out Coffeezilla and Adam Bauer (@travelfanboy) on Twitter. The name of the company was Traders Domain and more than just travel writers were involved. I’ll admit it’s above me on how it worked so I was thinking you might have some input into it.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=45sJJpS1OEM
Adam is a troll and I’ve blocked him, but I’ll try to find it.
Matthew thank you for making a frustrating situation positive…. I have been with the airline for over 30 years
Yes things happen and it is equally frustrating for us
I so appreciate your understanding and looking at the positive sides… we truly do care about our passengers
Thanks again and hope to see you on one of my flights
re: Delta hotel. Confused by screen shots. I see “No Shuttle”, but I also see “Transportation Provided”. Which is it and if transportation was on your dime, that would not have been inexpensive to get to Westin Reston?
That’s the odd thing. The nicer Westin hotel had the transportation vouchers (assumedly Uber or Lyft) included, while the budget Comfort Inn had no transport provided. Who would choose that?
Hello Matt.
My observation about Reston (I used to live there). For 40 minutes, you and your father could have taken the new Silver Line to Reston which would have been an interesting part of your trip. 3 billion cost and it only has 2 rails (so it can’t run an express train or easily deal with breakdowns.) That’s ideal, of course, but still only about 10 minutes at most more than an UBER. Same thing coming to the airport: Jump on it as early as 5AM.
DC folks gripe about how the silver line isn’t as fast as it could be, and they’re right. Perhaps they should have hired Poles or Germans to construct it. FYI: Krakow airport now has a rail connection to downtown. If you don’t have zloty, PLEASE ask some Poles to help out!!!
You were very unlucky. I fly 0ver 70 segments on Delta every year and I only recall one delay in the last 5 years on a flight from AMS since the incoming flight was late. Nothing else.
Sorry your Delta 757 was an unlucky one! In April I observed many Delta 757-200s taking off from and landing at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta airport from my hotel bordering the airport. Plus my own flight from Seattle to Atlanta was on a Delta 757-300, and it was perfect (also my very first time flying on any 757)! Delta has ordered 737 Max 10s, which could start to replace the 757s, but as it’s probably going to take a while for Boeing to start delivering them. So possibly Delta will keep its 757s flying until then!
In the past three weeks, I have suffered two missed connections (once on United and once on American) that resulted in overnight delays. Rather than wait to receive hotel vouchers for hotels of the airline choosing, and the delays involved, I quickly booked nearby Marriott properties and was in my room before most others on the flight had their vouchers. Sometimes it’s just way more convenient to pay out of pocket for something you know rather than risk whatever the airlines throw at you.
Pre-merger NW, I was flying MSY-MEM-MSP starting on a 757. It had a non-working APU so they needed a ground unit to start the engines. Problem was a single ground unit didn’t have enough power so they had to string two ground units together. We left MSY late, missed my connection and spent the night at a hotel in MEM.
I think you’ll get 50k Delta miles reimbursement if you contact the Customer Relation.
I believe you can email the hotel receipt to get your reimbursement also with your Capital once VentureX?
Last time my flight got delays over 12 hours, went in to the city, bought a Prada T-shirt & shoes (they were on sale) $495 including tax. was re-imbursed from my cc within 10 days.
I stayed at the Park Hyatt Chicago $450 & $65 Uber rides, the airline re-imbursed for this without a question.
The 757s are older but with out them there is no DCA-LAX nonstop. Not even the 321NEO can operate that leg.